Siblings Set for Final Match as Teammates
JJ Klein, Army West Point Athletic Communications
When Jerry and Leigh Kutz detoured from their boating voyage along the Hudson River years ago to take a tour of the United States Military Academy with their young children Kaitlyn and Kyle, there was no way they could have imagined the importance that West Point would later have to their family.
“It was purely by coincidence. We decided to take our boat and go up the Hudson River,” Jerry said. “On the way up we saw West Point and on the way back down we looked into finding a marina that was close enough that we could tour it.”
After docking in neighboring Highland Falls, the family hiked uphill and proceeded to tour the prestigious service academy. Jerry and Leigh were mesmerized by West Point's endless picturesque views and the rich history. Kaitlyn’s and Kyle’s eyes were drawn to The Plain, where the cadets were marching in unison.
“For me it was the first image in my head of what the military looked like,” Kyle said. “The one thing I remember was them all being in step marching by. At the time that was one of the coolest things ever to see.”
Jump forward to present day, not only are the brother-sister duo cadets at USMA, but they are also teammates on the Army West Point rifle team. This weekend the two will shoot side-by-side for the final time in the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center in the Great America Rifle Conference Championships.
“They’re great teammates. You can tell that an early age teamwork and personal responsibility were engrained in them and they’ve both brought that here,” said Web Wright, the Army rifle head coach.
It will mark the final competition of Kaitlyn’s decorated career. Last season, to go along with earning all-America honors, she was the only shooter in the nation to individually qualify in both smallbore and air rifle for the NCAA Championship. However, just a day before she was set to compete in the match, the championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kyle, a plebe at West Point, learned on Tuesday he was one of just three freshmen in the nation to individually qualify for this year’s NCAA Championship. He had the top smallbore mark of any individual qualifier in the nation with a mark of 589 in the NCAA Qualifier match last week.
It is not the first time that Kyle is following in his older sister’s footsteps.
Growing up they were involved in many of the same sports. Both did karate and each of them eventually joined the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps program as teenagers. Participating in the same sports and clubs often meant competing against each other. With Kaitlyn having the three-year age advantage, Kyle naturally found himself playing catch up to his older sister. It was a classic sibling rivalry.
“I remember there was one day in the backyard she was riding her bike without training wheels. I couldn’t at that point and she started teasing me about it,” Kyle recounted as both of them chuckled. “I took the training wheels off my bike and spent the rest of the day falling over for four or five hours, until finally by the end of the day I got it just to tell her that I could.”
Their involvement in the sea cadet program led them to discovering competitive shooting.
“It’s kind of unique because we each started the sport around the same time, but she’s older than me so she progressed a little bit quicker,” Kyle said. “So, the next couple of years it would be me playing catch up and eventually we’d get to the point where I’m threatening to catch her and that’s when the sibling rivalry pressure kicked in.”
Despite the competition between the two of them, Kaitlyn and Kyle have always been very supportive of one another.
“They had a really good attitude about it. They were pretty lighthearted about it. They laughed about it and it was healthy for them to push each other like that,” Leigh said. “At the end of the day they always supported each other and still do. It was nice to see your kids get along like that. They’re genuine friends."
It did not take long for both Kaitlyn and Kyle to advance in the sport.
“Each one of them in their own age group began to excel further and further in rifle up to a national level,” Jerry said. “At the same time, they were progressing in the Navy sea cadets all the way into junior high and into high school.”
Their involvement in the sea cadets program led to a mutual interest in wanting to attend a service academy. They also started making the 60-mile trek from their home in Darien, Conn., to West Point nearly every weekend, where both were competing in a rifle league.
Jerry can still recall the family’s first trip back to West Point for one of Kaitlyn and Kyle’s competitions since they toured the Academy years earlier.
“We drove down the long road from Stoney Lonesome gate, down the hill past the stadium and past the Chapel. We were just in awe,” Jerry said. “The kids were glued to the windows. I remember saying to them take a look at this because this is amazing.”
Already interesting in attending a service academy, Kaitlyn narrowed her sights on West Point.
“She came to us early in the process and told us that she wanted to go to West Point. We were shocked, absolutely shocked, but we supported her through the process,” Jerry said.
The summer of her junior year of high school, she took part in West Point’s Summer Leader Experience (SLE), a week-long program which immerses its attendees into the academic, military and social life of a cadet.
“During the application process, I was in awe with West Point, but I never thought that I was ever going to be able to come here,” Kaitlyn recalled. “Going to SLE and seeing all the cadets here really sold me on coming here.”
Ultimately, she received her appointment to USMA and joined the Army rifle program. Kaitlyn made an immediate contribution to the team. As a plebe, she held the second highest air rifle average and the third best smallbore average on the team.
Much like his older sister, Kyle shared the same goal of wanting to attend a service academy. He was very observant as Kaitlyn went through her college application process.
“It all started when Kaitlyn was applying. Her visiting all the academies gave me exposure to them,” Kyle said. “Right about that time Kaitlyn was entering her plebe year and I just started taking notes, sitting back and just watching. I was trying to get as much as I could from her to see into that life.”
With Kyle still competing regularly at Tronsrue and the Kutz family tailgate becoming a staple at Army rifle matches, he gravitated towards USMA and eventually committed to West Point.
On Oct. 17, 2020, Kaitlyn and Kyle were once again shooting side-by-side as teammates in Tronsrue in Army’s season-opening virtual match against Kentucky.
“I think that first match was a lot of fun. It felt like a big success. We wound up on the same NCAA team and we were both really happy to be there,” Kaitlyn said.
“As a freshman coming in it was kind of intimidating, especially having an older sister on the team. It felt like I had an expectation to meet. So, it put a lot of pressure on me, but the first match went well,” Kyle humbly noted before his sister chimed in that he wound up shooting a personal best score of 589 in smallbore in his collegiate debut.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the two of them,” Leigh said. “They’ve worked so hard to get to where they are and we would have never imagined this.”
The two have continued to shoot next to each other in nearly every match. Both agree that it’s been nice to have each other as a support system, especially in a year which their parents have not been able to visit them at West Point.
“It’s been a tough year, especially with this being the only year that the two of them are there together,” Leigh noted. “So, we kind of missed out on that, but it’s not about us. It’s about them. I’m just thankful that they have each other to go through this crazy year.”
“I have my best friend here. He looks out for me and I look out for him,” Kaitlyn said. “I think that was especially important this year. We both were used to seeing our parents very frequently. They would come up almost every weekend. And then this year not being able to see them at all, it’s been nice to have that piece of home.”